1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital time displays which are useful for general timekeeping. As used herein, "general timekeeping" refers to the usual timekeeping needs and practices of ordinary individuals occupied with their customary activities on a day-to-day basis, as contrasted from specialized time monitoring procedures such as stop time, split time, lap time and countdown sequences used in games, sporting events, scientific experiments, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Balanced digital time displays are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,264,966 and 4,483,628, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. These patents describe time displays which show minutes elapsed after the current hour, typically during the first half hour, and thereafter minutes remaining before the next hour, typically during the second half of the current hour. Such displays are somewhat bi-directional in the sense that all elapsed minutes increase in value and all remaining minutes decrease in value. These progressions track the expansion phase of each hour as it increases to its peak value of thirty minutes, i.e., the midpoint, and thereafter the contraction phase as the same hour decreases to its termination, thus echoing the balanced rhythms exhibited by naturally oscillating motions, e.g., sun, moon, tides, etc., from which the perception of time, in all likelihood, first entered human consciousness.
The previous patents apply the same principle of balance to the timing of minutes by displaying increasing seconds up to a peak value of thirty, i.e., the midpoint of each minute, and thereafter decreasing seconds down to the zero value that marks the end of each minute and the start of the next one. While this achieves similar advantages of rhythm and balance in the expansion and contraction of each minute, it also introduces divergencies in the directions that minutes and seconds traverse.
In particular, when minutes are increasing during the first half of the hour, seconds proceed in the same direction only during the first half of each minute, thereafter reversing and moving in an opposite direction down to zero. Conversely, when minutes are decreasing during the second half hour, seconds initially increase in an opposite direction during the first half minute, and then reverse and move in the same direction toward zero.
These divergencies may well impact negatively on some viewers as being anomalous, inconsistent or confusing. They also preclude the attainment of important advantages of full bi-directionality during the course of each hour and minute.